Mom Warns Others After Claiming She Found a Razor in Chocolate "Surprise" Egg

When Jenna Argento Dapolito surprised her two-year-old daughter last week with a Hello Kitty chocolate egg from Choco Treasure, underneath the foil wrapping and hard candy shell, she expected this:

But instead of the classic, kid-friendly toy promised, what the Staten Island mom found in its place shocked her — inside was a dirty razor blade. "She ate the chocolate around [the shell], and when it was time to open it, I opened it and the razor blade slipped out," Dapolito told Working Mother.

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Choco Treasure is produced in Turkey and based in Lebanon, New Jersey, reports Working Mother. The eggs contain an outer foil, chocolate shell and then, underneath that shell, a plastic egg containing a "surprise."

On the Choco Treasure website, it says that there are 20 possible treasures found in an egg — anything from a magnet or figurine to stickers or 3D puzzles. "I don't know if it's a production error," Dapolito said. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to harm a child, but there are a lot of sick, sick, sick people out there."

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Dapolito told Staten Island Real-Time News that she contacted the deli in Great Kills, where she'd purchased the chocolate egg for the first time. The owners, she said, were "extremely apologetic" and removed the rest of the Choco Treasure eggs from their shelves. It was then confirmed that none of the others contained razorblades.

Luckily, her daughter wasn't hurt — still, the New York mom went to Facebook to warn other parents about her disturbing discovery: "Please everyone do not purchase these surprise chocolate eggs for your children," she wrote. "Emma just opened hers and a sharp razor blade fell out of the egg!"

Dapolito told Working Mother that opening "surprise eggs" is a popular hit on YouTube for kids. And although she had wanted to go along with the hype and give her daughter something to smile about, it most definitely didn't go as planned.

Under the FDA's Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, any candy with a toy "or non-nutritive object embedded" inside is illegal due to choking hazards with young children. There are some exceptions including Choco Treasure and the ever-popular Kinder Eggs, a similar type of candy made by the Italian company, Ferrero. These, however, were not legalized in the U.S. until just a few months ago and will be officially coming to stores in 2018.

Despite the fact that there is a long list of chocolate products still banned in the U.S. by the FDA, on the Choco Treasure website, it notes that its product is "tested safe for all ages and has been reviewed and cleared by the FDA."

"Safety and product quality are by far the most important priorities for us, so you can imagine how upsetting this is to us. We design our candy and toys to be fun for children, but safety has to come first. We actually test every single object that is intended to be in Choco Treasure to ensure they are safe for all ages – not just 3+ as with many other surprise products. We are currently investigating this matter to determine what exactly happened. We have been in touch with both Ms. Dapolito and the FDA, as we want to move quickly on this."

According to Staten Island Real-Time News, Dapolito was informed by a spokeswoman from the FDA that this incident is being looked into as "criminal tampering."